Some particulars relating to my Pilgrimage thro’
the wilderness of this world, to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Thomas Moore
Fairfield Sep.r 16 1821:
This venerable and beloved servant of Christ
entered into the joy of his Lord Sept. 7 1823

Having often recommended it to show to note
down some particulars of their course through
time, to the praised glory of the grace & unchang
able faithfulness of god our Saviour who loved
us & gave himself unto death for us, it would
be inexcusable in me to neglect it; especially as
at the time of writing this I am in the 72d year
of my age, far advanced therefore on my earthly pilgrimage
& in all probability not very far distant from the
mark for the prize of my high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.

All that I can say concerning myself & the un
speakable love & mercy of God my Creator and Redeemer towards
me the poorest of the poor to this present moment,
feeling as I do that I am not worthy of the least of all
the mercies & of all the truth which the Lord hath
shown unto me his poor unworthy unpredictable servant & may
be comprized in the following verse:

“I am a poor sinner – This I surely know,
“And if my dear Saviour – did not love me so
“that my soul his purchase, – He cannot forsake,
“He [??] now had taken – His grace from me back.”

I was born in the city of Worcester Jan 25
1750; & baptized in the Church of England of which
both my Parents were members. My Father Thomas
Moore was a merchant. My Parents had five
Children of which I was the third. My two Sis-
ters & a Brother died in their infancy; but my
youngest Brother lived till the year 1780 when
he died aged 25 years & 9 months as an officer
in his Majesty’s navy.

My late Father, who was universally belov-
ed & respected, as an upright, honest man, de-
parted this life Jan. 8 1753 in Worcester. Thus
I was deprived of an affectionate Father at an
age, when I could scarcely remember him. My
Mother endeavoured to bring up her children
in the nurture & admonition of the Lord, & to give
them a good education. For this purpose I was
placed successively under the care & tuition of
4 Clergymen in the Church of England, from
whom I received a classical education.

During my School years my natural depra-
vity began to discover itself bad examples among
my School companions were not wanting to se-
duce me to sin.
In the year 1760 being placed as a boarder
under the care of the Rev. Mr. Mansell at Barton
under Needwood in Staffordshire, I received the
first serious impressions. My worthy Tutor, Mr
Mansell was at that time Curate of the Parish
Church & preached the Gospel with much zeal.
He also used to assemble the awakened among his
Parishioners every Sunday Evening in his great
Hall, when he sung, prayed, & expounded the Scrip-
tures with them; his Pupils were also present. Tho’
only in my 11th year, yet these private meetings
were blessed to my heart, & his frequently insist
ing on “One this is needful” made an indelible
impression on my mind: & tho I was then ignorant
of the spiritual meaning of these words, yet they
in succeeding years often occurred to my mind,
till the Lord was graciously pleased to manifest
himself to my soul as my Saviour.
Having finished my education in 1762, I
returned to & lived with my Mother in Wor-
cester about a year & a half.
Shortly after Divine Providence directed me
to a situation with Mr Benj. Bayley, an eminent
Cloth Manufacturer. Observing I was diligent
& industrious he conceived a particular esteem
for me, & after I had been with him about 3
years & a half he made over his business for me, so
that soon after my entrance into my 19th year I
became my own Master & entered into business
on my own account.
My Mother removed from Worcester & lived
with me at Frome, till the Spring of 1772, at which
time I removed guided by a Divine hand, & not
knowing why to London. Concerning my a-
bode of 7 years & a half in Frome, I must still re
mark the following. Tho’ a member of the Church
of England I occasionally attended the meetings
of the Wesleyan Methodists with benefit for my
heart. My inward course was very chequered, & my
conduct in many respects contrary to better
knowledge, because my heart was not yet wholly
given up to God my Saviour.
My first approach to the Holy Commu
nion was on Xmas day 1768 being not quite
19 years of age. My feelings on this solemn oc
casion are expressed in my Diary for that year.
This may first approach to the Lord’s Table was
with strong crying & tears; with much tumbling
& deep contrition of heart. Indeed the sense of
my excuding[?] sinfulness, my depravity & in-
bud[?] corruption, my great unworthiness & un
fitness for so great a blessing; these reflections
humbled me in the dust before God, & caused me
to abhor myself as in dust & ashes. Again when
I considered the holiness, the purity, the majes-
ty & infinite perfections of that divinely glori-
ous being, whom I was now going to approach,
I was struck with amazement at his great
love & condescension in admitting such an
unworthy, [???] deserving creature to eat & drink at
his table with the children of the kingdom who had
so long been feeding upon husks with the swine.
Surely it is a time much to be remembered by me; a
time of unfeigned repentance. In the language of
the Church of England Communion service, I
could say, ‘I do earnestly repent & am heartily sorry
‘for these my misdoings; the remembrance of them is
‘grievous unto me; the burthen[?] of them is intolera-
‘ble’ – these were words which my heart wept out. Sick
of sin; hungring & thirsting often righteousness; sen-
sible of the innumerable unrighteousness which
I had unrigteously committed from the hour
of my birth to the present moment, vewing my
whole life past as one continued act of sin &
rebellion against the Lord, & against His Christ.
I did not presume to come to this thy ta-
ble, O merciful Lord, trusting in my own righ-
teousness, but in thy manifold & great mercies.
I was conscious that I saw not worthy to gather
up the crumbs under thy table, & could there-
fore from my heart pray that knowledge
grant me so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son, Jesus
Christ, & to drink his blood that my sinful body
may be made clean by his body & my soul
washed thro’ His most precious blood: & that
I may evermore dwell in him & he in me.
Surely it will not be presumption in me
to say, that I received a broken & bleeding Saviour
with a broken & contrite heart. If my poor heart was
pierced thro’ with many sorrows at the sight of my
deplorable condition by nature, it was also much
comforted & rejoiced with a joy unspeakable &
full of glory, in being enabled with a humbling
hand to lay hold of a Saviour, to view his wound
as inflicted on my account, to see His most pre-
cious hearts blood flowing to the last drop, for me!
It was now I could with humble confidence cry out;
“My Lord & my God!” & tho I was constrained in my
self to say to corruption “Thou art my Mother, yet
in Christ I was enabled to say to God – Abba,
Father!”
[???] been an unworthy partaker of the body
and blood of Jesus my dear crucified Lord, my
tears of contrition I sorrow were exanged for tears
of joy & gratitude to my Saviour for this fresh in
stance of & is unchangeable love to a poor sin-
ner. My heart, lately bleeding with the wounds,
which sin had made groaning under its hea
vy presence: weary & heavy laden; sad & very dis-
consolate; now leaped for joy in having found
him whom my soul longed for. “I saw under
his blessed shadow with great delight, & his
fruit was sweet to my taste! sweeter also than
honey or the honey comb.” He brought me to his
banquetting house, “& there his banner over me,
was love! He filled my hungry soul with good
things – even his most precious body & blood.”
‘O self debasing grace! To think upon Elriots[?] love
‘That one so vile & base, Such happiness should prove:
‘At last with thankfulness I taste
‘The Banquets of His marriage feast.”
End of Extract from his diary of 1768.
In the year 1769 I was favoured with some
precious opportunities in attending weekly on
Tuesday evenings a private meeting at the Rev
Mr Kingdow’s, a Baptist Minister. In these
meetings which were opened with a hymn & a
prayer, a text of Scripture was expounded in an
evangelical manner by some of the Ministers &
Members present, which often proved a real
blessing to my heart. I still attended pub-
lic worship in the Church of England, into
whose communion I had been initiated from
my infancy, I usually was a monthly guest
at the Holy Communion under a deep sense of
my own unworthiness.
It was towards the close of my abode in
Frome that Crank’s History of the Brns mission
among the Greenlanders was put into my
hands by a man in my service who was a mem
ber of the small Brns Society at that time (in the
year 1771) in Frome, under the care of the late Br
Hn Jacob Rogers. The natural history of Green-
land afforded me much pleasure & instruc-
tion; but when I proceeded to the history of the
Mission, my heart was filled with amazement
& joy at the powerful work of the Holy Ghost on
the hearts of those poor ignorant heathen, & at the
christian perseverance of the Missionaries under
so many & various trials & discouragements.
Here appeared methought, evidently the hand of
God & a real effusion of the Divine Spirit; &
I was deeply impressed with the idea that
there was something more devoted among the
Brn than I had found among any other de
nomination of Xns with whom I had hi-
therto been acquainted.
After the perusal of this book I occasionally
attended on Sunday evenings the preaching of
the late Br Jacob Rogers without however cul-
tivating any personal acquaintance with
that excellent man. The more however I re
flected on the Brns doctrine and their aposto-
lie[?] zeal in propogating the gospel among the
heathen, the thought arose in my heart, “This
people shall be my people; & their God, my God.”
The world & worldly pursuits became more
& more disgusting to me, & in the simplicity of my
heart, I, on Oct 1 1771, after much fervent
prayer for divine assistance, made a solemn
surrender of myself to my Creator & Redeemer,
& committed this my solemn covenant to
writing the conclusion of which was in the fol-
lowing words
“In this free, voluntary surrender of my-
“self to thee, O God, I engage with all my soul,
“might, & strength in humble dependence up
“on thy assisting grace.”
My feelings at the end of the year 1771
are expressed in the following extract from my
diary of that year. “O my kind merciful
“God! I have been left unto Thee ever since I
was born. Thou art he who took me out of my
Mother’s womb & supported me when I hung
still upon her breast. In my earliest infan
cy Thou didst prepare everything fit for my
support; thou didst care for & suffer no harm to
come near me. I have also abundant cause
to thank thee that as I grew up, Thy love & faith-
fulness still followed me & delivered me out of
many & great dangers. Yea when my soul
strayed far from thee & my poor heart was
full of sin & iniquity, thy patience was not at
an end, but after thou hadst borne long with my re-
bellion & sins against thee, for nearly 18 years:
Thou didst then by exercising me with a hea
vy affliction, bring me, thy poor creature by
the light of thy Holy Spirit to a deeper knowledge
of my sinfulness. Thou wast pleased to create
me anew by thy blessed spirit, & wash away my
sins in the precious blood of thy dear Son. How
shall I thank Thee sufficiently my dearest Lord,
for all the known & unknown instances of thy
loving kindness & tender mercy manifested to-
wards me thy poor unworthy creature!
I can never praise & love thee as thou des
servest of me either in time or in eternity. I
deeply lament over the many provocations
wherewith I have provoked Thee since thou
wast pleased to manifest thyself to me as my
reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. Fainfully
conscious of my many backslidings, I hum
ble myself before Thee & blush in the dust at
thy feet. Many are the protections, deliveran-
ces & mercies which I have expereinced from
Thee during these 22 years of my past life, in-
somuch that when I recount them they ap-
pear to be one continued act of love. O my
dearest Lord & Savior for his first instance
of his unspoken[?] enable me thro’ thy grace to de-
vote my whole future life to Thee who hast done
so much for me. May my heart cleave to & love
“Thee above all things. May my affections run
“out after Thee, and my whole soul be wrapped
“up in Thee, my chiefest food! Amen.”
I have already observed that my removal
from Frome to London seemed to be overruled
by a Divine hand, as I scarecely knew why I
changed my situation. From my arrival in
London in the spring of 1772 till the middle
of 1778 I was engaged in various mercan-
tile concerns on my own account, in whch
I experienced many trials & disappoint
ments which tended to wean my heart more
& more from the world. Soon after my ar-
rival in London, where I usually attended
the ministry of the Revd Mr Romaine at
St. Ann’s Blackfriars, I became acquainted with the
Brn Benj. Latrobe, Geo. Franker & Heny Suleger
the latter being then Choir laborer of the Sle
Brn. I now & then attended the public ser-
vice in Fetterlane chapel with real blessing
for my heart. Thro’ the representations of my
Xn friends & epecially of some in connex-
ion connection with the Colonist Methodists I had
imbibed strong prejudices against the
Brn which caused me to read with a Hin[?]